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Bengal monitors have fat deposits in the tail and body that serve them in conditions when prey are not easily available. The lungs have spongy tissue unlike the sacs of other saurians . This allows for a greater rate of gas exchange and allows a faster metabolic rate and higher activity levels.
Megalania, being the most massive terrestrial reptile back then, would have competed with predators like Thylacoleo to prey on marsupials as big as Procoptodon and even the Diprotodon, the largest of them that ever existed. Whether true monitors carry toxin is a long debated topic.
Monitor lizards are reputed to be among the most intelligent lizards. Most species forage widely and have large home ranges, [ 11 ] and many have high stamina. [ 12 ] Although most species are carnivorous, three arboreal species in the Philippines ( Varanus olivaceus , Varanus mabitang , and Varanus bitatawa ) are primarily frugivores.
Most monitor lizards are almost entirely carnivorous, [14] consuming prey as varied as insects, crustaceans, arachnids, myriapods, molluscs, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Most species feed on invertebrates as juveniles and shift to feeding on vertebrates as adults.
As the species’ numbers are currently listed as ‘least concern’ by the IUCN, the main threat to short-tailed pygmy monitors is predation by larger animals; predators include (but are not limited to) birds of prey, dingoes, feral cats and dogs, owls, certain snakes and introduced red foxes. Other, larger species of monitor may pose a threat.
A number of prey items are, however, also consumed, including snails, crabs, spiders, beetles, birds and eggs. Monitors are generally carnivorous animals, which makes the Gray's monitor somewhat of an exception amongst the varanid family. Such an unusual diet may be as a result of competition over food with the water monitors, which share their ...
Argus monitors frequently prey on the dwarf monitors that it shares its range with. Spiny-tailed goannas and Kimberley rock monitors are eaten regularly. Argus monitors have great senses, with smell being the most acute. Like all monitors, they have a forked tongue and a vomeronasal organ in the roof of its mouth. It uses this organ in the same ...
Pygmy mulga monitors eat primarily spiders, orthopterans, beetles, and other lizards, especially geckos such as Gehyra variegata and Heteronotia binoei. [8] Geckos too large to be killed may be attacked anyway to consume their autotomized tails. [8] Bird eggs, small mammals, and even ant-sized prey are also taken. [5]